The Rubies of Chaos
by Tyrsdom
Summary: In an epic inter-dimensional tale, a human gets teleported into the Sonic universe! The only problem is, he didn't want to...nor was he the intended target. For what purpose did the Sonic Team need a human anyway? Rated M for language.
1. Prelude

**Prelude**

(Clay wakes up.)

(His head…pounding. Something smells strange. Eyes stinging. Vision foggy. Clay -)

(No, wait.) "Aggh!" (_I'm Clay._)

(I'm…me. What's wrong with -)

"Cough! Ugh. What's that smell? Wait…"

(Oh no. Oh fuck me.)

Clay got up with the steadiness of a twig in a hurricane and looked around with his new eyes, still stinging from the metamorphosis. He was on the slope of a lush green knoll, with several exotic-looking trees surrounding him leading down to a nice substantial river.

"Goddammit! Where the hell am I!?"

Instinctively his hands covered his mouth in a panic, as he noticed for the first time that the voice coming out of him sounded vastly different, but not nearly as different as the hands he now noticed were covering his mouth.

If there ever was an emotion that far surpassed panic, Clay felt it at this moment tenfold as he looked down at his gloved hands and fur covered arms, the coat a shimmering dark grey.

"Oh God, what - what the hell is going on!? Wait!"

A thought appeared in his mind.

"Wait…no…no no no no no no no no!"

He had to see his reflection.

(The river!)

He ran towards the river rather clumsily, as controlling his new-found speed and maintaining balance proved to be near-impossible.

"Woahaaagghhffffsshshhhhh!"

His common word of choice as he continued to trip and bump into rocks and logs while making his way down the hill.

After several stubbed toes, he arrived at the riverbank and looked down at his own reflection. A gasp would have come out if there wasn't a lump of fear making home in his throat. Staring back up at him was a large head complete with ginormous expressive eyes, green irises, a small black nose, and mohawk styled spikes that seemed to become sort of wavy at the tips. He also appeared to be wearing some black bracelets of some unknown material, a small backpack, and, to top it all off, one of his ears was pierced with a golden ring.

"Oh…my fuck…what - what's going on!?"

Clay fell back down with an alarming 'thump!' He tried, desperately, to think back to the previous night when he was just a normal human. Yes, it all began with a visit to his not-really-friend's house.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

There's a word for someone who is beyond severe obsession that the human race hasn't thought up of yet, but its roots began in this very home.

One couldn't walk two steps without - well, one just couldn't walk two steps, since there was so much Sonic memorabilia scattered about everywhere. Looking closely, there was a makeshift pathway for visitors to follow that would allow them to make it to at least the kitchen table, but the path pushed past both the normal boundaries of claustrophobia and patience, so there were obviously few visitors.

Ryan, though, was content with this life. He had few close friends, mostly online, and that's all he really needed. That being said, the person just coming in through his door was hardly a person he would consider "close", or a "friend" for that matter.

"Aggghh! This - fucking - OW!" In came a very uncomfortable Clay. He hated ever coming here, except for the free beer and, well, company of another male.

"What -", Ryan turned around on his swivel chair, " - are you tripping on? Hey! Be careful with that! That's the 10th Anniversary crystal cube!"

Crack!

"Oh…I swear I can pay for - I mean..." Clay had the expression of someone who was expecting justified anger.

Ryan had to stay still to compress the rage.

"Ahem. Actually, honestly, probably not."

"Ugggggghhhh. Y- you - you -!"

"_I_ have brought my external hard drive and laptop."

"Sigh. Yeah. Just set up over there."

Ryan vaguely pointed over towards a very cluttered kitchen table and maneuvered his way to the damaged crystal cube. Clay wasn't the best of his friends, or anything for that matter, but he did serve the grander purpose of convenience. Clay was a deadbeat if there ever was one for sure, but he knew computers, and how to make a damn tasty Screwdriver.

There was always collateral damage with him though.

The 3D Sonic inside the crystal cube was still recognizable, but a good chunk of the corner was gone. A good waste of $1,000. He was struggling to open up his bottle of Xanax that he always carried in his pocket when he noticed an almost indiscernible scratch on the biggest chunk of crystal.

"Oh! Oh ho! Oh thank the golden rings! Y'know, you're lucky! This is, or was, my damaged model. Got it for half the price! So I still have my other 3 mint ones in-tact."

"Well thank God for that."

Clay didn't care. He really didn't. Though, there was a little curiosity of how much 'half' really cost. Probably still too much. Shoving that idea out of his mind, he turned his attention to Ryan's blank screen of a computer, which…was confusing him. The only thing on the screen was a question in blue words in a console like format.

_-DO YOU ACCEPT?_-  
_-Y/N-_

"Now, um, tell me, what exactly happened to your computer again?"

Ryan got up. Holding the pieces of the crystal in his hands as he made his way to the table.

"I…don't know. I downloaded this Sonic - "

"Oh God, do I want to hear the rest of this story?"

"It wasn't porn!"

"It's never porn. It's _always_ hentai."

"Ugh! It wasn't - never mind! I downloaded this Sonic game some guy on one of the IRC channels created. It seemed kinda cool because you could create your own Sonic character before you ran the courses. The thing is, the moment I created my character, well…this."

They both stared at the screen. Clay couldn't help but feel that he was wasting his time.

"Ahem. So, um, did you accept?" Clay clicked the 'Y' button. Nothing.

"Well, of course I did. But the weird thing is, this computer isn't hooked up or plugged in at all, and it's still running."

Clay looked underneath the table, following the cord and verified that, yes, this computer shouldn't even be on.

"This is...unrealistic movie level hacking. I - I don't get what's going on..."

Clay sat back up while hitting the "Y" key over and over again. It was then he heard a faint high-pitched humming noise.

"What is that?"

He looked back at Ryan.

"Was it always making that noise?"

Ryan looked confused.

"What noise? What're you talking -"

The computer made a loud beep.

_-TRANS-DIMENSIONAL DE-MOLECULARIZER AND REASSEMBLE FUNCTION LINK ACQUIRED_-

"Oh! There's something new on the screen!"

Clay turned around, confused by what he read.

"The wha -"

Clay woke up.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Are you fucking kidding me!?"

Clay punched his reflection in the water, causing a cold splash to hit his face. The sensation was so clear and vivid that any doubts of this being a mere nightmare were erased. For a while he remained crouched over the edge of the river, eyes closed, water dripping off of him, wondering how in the world was he ever going to get back to normal.

In the midst of debating whether or not to just drown himself, a twig snapped behind him. As nimble and agile as a stumbling fawn, he spun around and was aiming his right bracelet, as if it could shoot something, towards a pink and chrome creature that looked almost like -

"Kn - Knuckles? Oh god, do I feel stupid saying that. Wait, no, you're not…"

Immediately after saying this, Clay noticed that the person (relatively speaking) standing before him was not only quite obviously an android of some kind, but a female one at that.

"Tell me who you are and where I am before I - I, uh," Clay glanced at the bracelet more carefully for a second, "Blast you…I guess." He hoped the robot would buy his bluff, but it appeared to be unimpressed and just stood there, the sound of some high pitched humming emanating from her.

(Dear lord, I don't know whether to be terrified that there's a real life cartoonish robotic echidna in front of me right now, or awe-struck by how well built this thing is. If it wasn't for the chrome bits and her emotionless face, I would've never guessed she was a -)

"Scanning complete. Strange...blood type is different from initial data, but no other irregularities found." The android's voice was surprisingly natural and fluid, and although she appeared to be capable of showing a wide range of emotions, she seemed to prefer the subtle approach, so one had to look _very_ closely to get the sense that she was content. "Overall, the 'Trans-Dimensional De-Moleculizer and Reassemble Function' was a success."

"The what? Wait a second, was it you who created that game?"

"Yes."

"…."

"Um…Why am I here? No. How am I here? No. Forget that. Please just send me back."

"I'm afraid I can not do that."

"Uh, can not, or will not?"

"Either. At any rate, this conversation can happen elsewhere. For now, it is imperative that we head south."

The android somehow seemed to be slightly annoyed by the barrage of questions, eager to proceed with her plan. Clay, already getting used to reading her indistinct expressions, became quite annoyed himself.

"No no no. Now look, I'm not moving anywhere until you tell me why I'm here!"

In the brief pause, the android seemed to sigh.

"Through my analysis, I concluded that you would be the last hope against the Turned One."

"Huh? Turned One? Crap, that must be a post-Genesis era character. Never thought I'd say this, but I wish Ryan was -"

Suddenly, the android's eyes flashed a neon amber color. She looked above Clay and to the right a bit, her expression swiftly going from seemingly annoyed to seemingly urgent. She quickly grabbed Clay's still outstretched arm and brought him in closer to her. Before Clay could shoot out the nothing from his bracelets, the android had parted his lips and was giving him the deepest kiss of his life.

"Hmmmmffff! Hmmff? Hmmmm."

The lips were surprisingly soft, but her tongue was shockingly cold and she tasted a tinge metallic. Still, in a strange way, Clay found that he could get quite addicted to this feeling, and then felt immediately ashamed about that fact.

In the midst of his pleasure, Clay heard trees bending, creaking, and then breaking. Opening up one eye in a haze, he dreamily looked towards the sounds. There, floating silently and motionless in air, was the all too familiar blue spikes and red shoes. The expression on his iconic face, however, was volatile and almost manic.

"Where is it!?"

The voice seemed to hiss into Clay's bones. For a moment he had forgotten about the kiss.

"I know it's here…I know you're here! I felt it!"

Clay began to struggle in vain against the android's hold as instinctive fear coursed through him. It was a strange fear of pure unadulterated animal dominance. The unquestionable knowing that Sonic was a vastly superior being to him was unlike any feeling he had ever experienced. Clay looked into the android's eyes to plead with her to let him go, but realized he couldn't see her, or himself for that matter, and finally recognized that they were both in fact invisible.

"Ahhhhhrraaaaaaaagggghhh!"

Before Clay could be amazed by that fact, Sonic screamed out in agony. Clay looked over. Sonic's presence was weak. All the awe and power he just had a moment ago seemed to have had evaporated. Hunched over on the ground, panting heavily, blue fur shiny with sweat, Sonic appeared to be in an obscene amount of pain. In that moment, Clay caught a glimmer of great fear in Sonic's eyes.

Then, in half a blink, he got up, floated upwards, and flew away.

Clay was so stunned by what he had saw, that he had forgotten that he was still locking lips with the android. It was only when she began to pull away that he remembered and pushed off of her.

"What - how did you do that!? Why did it have to be _that_ way!? I mean, not that I'm complaining, but-"

That's when he noticed a silver tube quickly retract into the android's tongue. A click sound was heard when it seemed to 'lock' back into place. Realizing that's what was cold in his mouth, Clay had a single involuntary reaction.

"Blllllllllegggggghh!" Clay vomited into the river.

The android didn't seem too pleased by the reaction.

"Once you are done with that, we need to make our way to Master Prower's lab quickly. We were lucky that the Turned One's energy was already depleting when he located us."

"Uggghh! Oh god! Okay. I'm - phew - I'm okay. I'm okay."

A deep breath.

"Alright. Let's g-bleeeeeeggghhhh!"


	4. Chapter 3

Clay was starting to get used to this, running that is. Well, if he were to be perfectly honest, he was probably only at half speed, but the wind hurt his eyes if he went any faster. He glanced over at the android and knew by the look on her face that she was rather annoyed that they weren't going any faster.

(Speaking of, what is…)

"HEY! CAN YOU HEAR ME OVER THE WIND? I -"

"Yes, I can hear you fine. Please don't shout."

"Oh! Oh, I can hear you fine too. Great, that's just, uh, great. So, um, I - I just realized that I don't know your name. So, um, what's your name?"

The android was silent.

"…Or should I just call you 'The Android'?"

"I am E-146F."

"E-One-Forty…do you have a normal name?"

E-146F hesitated for a moment, "…it's Caroline."

"Caro - Caroline? Now that's," Clay smiled. He might've been a scumbag as a human, but at least he was scumbag that got laid. "See that's a beautiful name for a, a -uh…"

Clay then realized that he was flirting with not only an android, but an android echidna.

"But you're female! You're female right?"

Caroline seemed confused by the question.

"I - I fail to see why that matters at the moment, but, yes, I am."

Clay tried to use that to justify his actions to himself.

"It's just if I'm flirting with another creature -"

"Creature!? Hold on, _flirting_!?"

"- I want to be sure it's at least the right gender."

Caroline blasted her reverse thrusters, halting to a stop, with Clay following suite. She had several implants in her brain to prevent strong emotions, but even still, her being called 'creature' and the fact that he was being hit on by another species truly sent her annoyance over the threshold.

"Clay. I'm no longer -", she began, surprising even herself that she had to control her rage this much.

Clay on the other hand was still mindlessly rambling, "I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that. If I have to admit it, in college I -"

"Clay!"

Clay was shocked that Caroline raised her voice. For the first time, she sounded human, relatively speaking. She sighed, "Know that you are merely a visitor. You do not belong here. You will fulfill your purpose, and leave."

Clay stepped towards her, filled with a mixture of anger and fear. "_Purpose_? That _purpose_ is killing the main fucking character! Are you kidding me!? I'm going to get slaughtered!"

"Kill? Woah! No, we only want you to capture!" a voice said. Clay jumped, turned, and aimed his non-lethal bracelet at this new voice. There, a twin tailed fox walked toward him with no concern over what was pointed at him.

"And what does 'fucking' mean? I've sure never heard that word before.", Tails asked in the naive voice of an 8 year old.

"Oh…oh god…" Clay put a hand over his mouth, "Um, it's something bad. You- you should never say that ever again."

Tails could tell that Clay was treating him like a child, he hated when people did that, but chose to just ignore it. "Well, alright, if you say so."

Clay turned towards Caroline and whispered, "I - I shouldn't be cursing around him, should I? Like, I feel like I'm tainting him!"

Caroline merely shook her head, feeling an emotion that could only be described as embarrassment _for_ Clay.

"E-146F! You did it! Alright!", Tails walked over to Clay, looking him over in amazement. Clay felt odd to say the least.

"Um. Yeah, she did it. Wooo. So! Can you tell me what the fffuuu - ahh crap." Clay stopped himself from once again cursing in front of Tails. "This, this is going to be hard."

Caroline bowed, "He requires some training, though, I'm afraid. Some calculations went wrong for…currently unknown reasons."

"That's okay." Tails, satisfied with what he saw, went over and entered in a code in a keypad near the garage doors slid opened as they started walking into the garage, several high tech structures were scattered around inside.

"We can run a few simulations to power him up before we start the mission."

Clay looked around the area as they entered. Right when he walked in was a plane that was under a sheet, wires were everywhere like vines and roots connecting everything together, and several prototype E-146F models were hanging on the far back wall. Looking up on the second floor there seemed to be a laboratory with lights flashing behind frosted windows.

"Wow, this is actually a pretty cool…garage-lab place, now can someone please tell me why I am here?"

Tails didn't seem to hear him as he was busy on a console next to an octagonal metal ring. In the center of the ring projected images of landscapes were flickering. From what Clay could gather, it was probably a holographic device of some type.

"Maybe we can start with something basic…oh hey! I remember the Green Hill Zone!", Tails pulled down a lever as the whole garage seemed to dissolve away into familiar green scenery.

"No! There isn't anytime for that!", someone shouted.

Tails pushed back up on the lever, the landscape going away like an old television. Gliding inside the garage, with only the sound of the wind parting, was a very familiar red figure with eyes glowing in anger.

"Ok, _he's_ Knuckles. Ha!" Clay was proud of himself for once. He looked around for approval, but only found Knuckles looking at him with a glare sharper than the spikes on his namesake.

"Yes, I am, and I still think that _you_ and _this_," Knuckles said, pointing at Caroline, "are abominations."

Caroline looked at Knuckles with an emotion Clay couldn't interpret. Tails' expression, on the other hand, was clearly one of pure distress. Clay was completely and utterly indifferent.

He shrugged, "I'm with him. I don't belong here, and Caroline, no offense, has to be breaking at least some laws just by existing, also I'm _still_ not so clear as to why I'm here in the first place!"

Tails looked saddened, as if he had lost a close friend, "Clay…K-Knuckles, w-we didn't have any other options!"

"I…" Knuckles' slumped his shoulders as his anger gave way to hopelessness. "I know that…"

"And the sooner you do get that, the sooner we can resolve this mess!"

Clay couldn't believe who he was hearing. "Oh, wow, you guys really are desperate…"

A giant orange mustache couldn't conceal the wide toothy grin on Dr. Eggman's face. Even though the Doctor's goggles masked where he was looking, Clay couldn't help but feel manic and admiring eyes piercing him.

"Ok, so whatever is going on, it's definitely his fault. The end. Why am I here again? Did you guys need me to tell you all that?"

Knuckles looked at Clay with displeasure, "Of course this was all his fault, we're not idiots. We knew that from the beginning." He walked over to Caroline, gently picking up one of her dreadlocks tipped in chrome.

Tails pushed some buttons on the console and pulled the lever again. A temple started to materialize. In the center of the temple was an image of Knuckles sitting in front of a ginormous emerald. Clay was impressed by the imagery, but felt a rising worry that he would have to listen to more talking instead of less progress of getting him back to being a human.

(Oh christ, more talking. Why am I having flashbacks of playing Metal Gear Solid 4?)


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**The Turn Part I**

_This all took place a month ago._

The day started like any normal day for Knuckles. Breakfast, technique training, fly around the floating island to make sure all the animals are doing fine, return to the giant pyramid temple he had moved the Master Emerald into, lunch, and meditate to maintain his internal chi. The days usually repeated this routine consistently, which might've proven dull to most, but to Knuckles this was peace.

Knuckles was born on this floating island given one purpose: protect the Master Emerald at all costs. He had little experience with the outside world, which made him quite gullible at first, but by now, he had several adventures to know who his enemies were. One of whom, was bursting through the side of the temple in a hovercraft with a drill fixed on its front, a small troupe of armed robots marching in with him.

"This is it Knuckles!" Eggman began, "At last, I shall obtain the power of the Master Emerald!"

"Hmph, Eggman…" Knuckles got up, getting ready to fight, "Once again, as long as I'm here to defend the Master Emerald, you won't ever lay your hands on it!"

"Well, I can think of one or two times that I did just that, and with your help no less! Ha ha ha!" The mad scientist gave out a proud laugh that would've outdone the most self-centered narcissist. In one moment he seemed to almost fall out of his Egg Drill out of laughter, the next his giddy demeanor gave way to something more serious and cold.

"This time, I'm afraid, I don't need your help. According to my calculations," he flicked a switch and the drill started slowly spinning, "I just need to break your precious Master Emerald into pieces!"

Knuckles was horrified by the very idea. "What!? Are you crazy!?"

"As crazy as your orange furball of a friend! Eggbots, eliminate that red nuisance while I power the drill!" The Eggbots marched towards the Emerald.

"Just try." Knuckles quickly charged towards the Eggbots. They aimed their pulse rifles towards Knuckles and fired. Dodging the first two blasts, Knuckles dove underground, the other blasts completely missing him. The bots activated their thermal scanners and searched the ground frantically. After a lifetime of seconds, Eggman became impatient with the bots just standing there.

"Well! Don't just stand there! Shoot!"

Just then, Knuckles burst from the ground in front of the doctor, breaking the drill, and landing on top of Eggman's vehicle, causing the Eggbots to auto aim right at the two of them.

"DON'T SHOOT! DON'T SHOOT", Eggman shouted.

Knuckles grinned, "That's more like it. Now, I think you've overstayed your visit, Doctor."

"Hmm, nice theory, but, I think it's off a bit." Eggman flicked open a case revealing a button on his console, "Because I'm not leaving without completing my mission!" He slammed down on the button.

Suddenly, two rocket launchers came out of the sides of the hovercraft and before Knuckles could react, a pair of missiles launched towards the Master Emerald.

"NO!" Knuckles could only watch in horror as the missiles reached their target. The blast's shockwave knocked him off the vehicle and a cloud of dust enveloped the room.

"Cough cough! Ugh, no! The Mas - cough - er Emerald!" Knuckles quickly got up and desperately looked for even a shiny glint of the Emerald. To his great surprise, he saw it, along with a blue spiky friend standing on top of a heap of broken robots.

"Ack! Jeez! This is why they don't let people smoke indoors anymore!" Sonic had that permanent wisecracker smile plastered on his face. Then, in an instant, he ran around the temple funneling the smoke towards the opening that Eggman created. The dust clogged up whatever air venting system the Doctor installed in his hovercraft, and it clanged down with an echoey thump.

"AGGGH! Cough! NO! You shouldn't even be here!" Eggman wiped the dust off his goggles and slammed down on the console in front of him in a mixture of panic and fury. Sonic instantaneously appeared next to Knuckles.

"What're you talking about, Humpty-Dumpty? I'm best buds with ol'Knuckle Head here! I'm always welcome! Aren't I, ol' buddy ol' pal?" Sonic started messing around with Knuckles' dreadlocks, much to Knuckles' annoyance.

"Would you - Stop doing that! And next time try not to cover me with dust!"

"Oh, come on, Red! Don't pretend you hate that! No need to be modest just because Fun & Rotund is here! Say…" Sonic zoomed towards the edge of the hole in the ground where the Master Emerald once floated. The missile strike had uncovered a whole new chamber underneath the temple. "Well, Red, I see you've told your temple about the birds and the bees."

Sonic looked closer, he noticed a faint red glow coming from deep within. "Huh? What's that?…" The glow was drawing him in, hypnotizing him. He could almost hear a voice coming from the glow, like someone was calling his name…it sounded ancient…old…omniscient…almost -

"Sonic! You imbecile! It's _always_ you!"

Sonic broke free from the spell, "Hey!" He ran right up to Eggman's pod and flicked the Doctor's nose, "Don't give me all the credit! Knuckles broke your drilly thingy! I just bumped into your tin cans! Oh, and you're welcome for the fresh air by the way!"

"Bumped!? You - you destroyed - you! Do you have any idea how much time - bumped!?" Eggman's face was a surprising tint of boiling blood red, considering most had thought that only ice ran through his veins.

Sonic ran over to check up on Knuckles, who was now next to the Master Emerald, grateful to see no damage. "Bumped, spin dashed, same difference. Y'know, it's always semantics with you! Next you're going to tell me your name isn't 'Eggman'!"

"IT! ISN'T!" If the doctor had any hair, he would've been pulling the last of it out. "For the last time you infernal creature! My name is Dr. Ivo Robotnik!" Robotnik pulled out a walkie-talkie from his lab coat. "And _this_ is Nox!"

Apart from bursting through the top of the pyramid, the figure came in silently. It looked like Sonic's old nemesis Mecha Sonic, but with a color scheme of Shadow. Pitch black armor, red neon eyes, and a strange spot on its chest where it looked like something was supposed to fit in.

"Oh come on! This is going to take months to fix!" Knuckles got into a fighting stance.

"_Seriously!? _Aren't you supposed to be smart, Yolk-for-Brains? I was a mere hoglet when I 'bumped' into the first one of these things!" Sonic ran up to the robot and knocked on its head. The robot had no response.

"This time is different Sonic! I've spliced the DNA of you _and_ Shadow!"

Knuckles got apprehensive, "Shadow, eh? Where is that guy anyway?"

Sonic gave a sigh, "Oh I don't know, probably moping around a roller rink somewhere."

"With your limitless energy and speed combined with Shadow's Chaos Control, I've finally created the -"

"Yeah yeah yeah. As much as I love watching your mustache flop around when you yap," Sonic got into a sprinter's stance, "I've gotta finish this off quickly!"

He took off at top speed striking the robot with incredible force, knocking it through the temple walls, disappearing out of sight.

There was a moment where even the dust in the temple couldn't believe it was over that swiftly. Sonic turned around to Knuckles, "Um, ta-da?"

"N- no…it can't be…all that work…I don't understand how…that quickly…" Eggman resigned in defeat, becoming a limp doll in his pod.

"Oh get over it Hardboiled, you're plans always spoil."

Knuckles groaned, a little out of relief, "Was that - was that intentionally rhymed?"

"Possibly, hmm, y'know, I forgot why I even came here in the first place. Oh yeah! Have you seen Amy aroun -"

Without warning, Nox burst through the ground where the Master Emerald was floating, shattering it and knocking Knuckles off his feet.

"NO!"

"YES! Now, Nox! Absorb the powers of the Master Emerald!" Eggman was hopping in his grounded seat in excitement.

The robot picked up a shard, and was about to put it inside the hollow groove in its chest, but stopped. In that moment, Sonic rushed over and grabbed its hand.

"Now, do we really have to do this again, Shiny?"

Nox gave Sonic a concerned look, but then looked back to the shard in its hand. It placed it into one of the bigger chunks of the Master Emerald, instantly resetting it.

"What are you doing you fool!?" the Doctor was now hopping in place for completely different reasons.

A crackling sound like an old radio came out of the machine, "Bzzt! I'm sorry, Master, a more optimal solution has been found. Bzzt!" The voice sounded like British person, one whose skin barely stretched over his bones.

Sonic jumped, "Ahh! This thing talks!"

In Sonic's shock, Nox pulled away from him and began piecing the Master Emerald back together.

"What do you mean optimal solution!? All you needed was a single shard to be the most powerful creature in the world!"

Nox showed no concern for its Master's wishes as it continued to repair the Emerald.

"Bzzt! Second most, dear Master. Bzzt! Secondary objective was to deliver the rest of the shards to…" Nox looked up at Robotnik, "You, Master. Bzzt!"

"What of it!? How would I be able to control you otherwise!?"

Nox placed the final shard back in place. "Bzzt! Exactly, Master. _No one shall control me._"

The robot ripped off its chest plating, exposing a mess of sparks and wires, which were then quickly covered by the Master Emerald.

"Sonic! Stop him!"

Sonic moved quicker than - "I…I can't move!"

"Bzzt! Ah, yes, that would be Shadow's Chaos Control impeding your movement. Bzzt!" The robot started to rise, the temple began to shake.

Knuckles was frantic, "Doctor! Did you have any killswitch on this thing? Anything!?"

Dr. Robotnik just sat there stupefied, "I - I, no! He's - He's unstoppable!"

"Correct, Doctor." The voice had changed. It was deep, low, and filled the whole chamber.

"I am now the most powerful being in the universe!"


End file.
